Tundra said what? (Solo)

[Sairque]

1 Winter, 510 AV, Evening
The Enclave

This day was a good day to leave. She’d spent the afternoon with her surly friend Kovac, helping winterize the Thunder Bay settlement. Not something she’d done before, but had found the cold day of hard work satisfying anyway. Perhaps, she would do it again next winter. If she survived this one. If she survived the next ten days. Sira and Aidara would get their time together.

Sai dispelled the tangent thoughts and focused once more on the faded map before her. Two days to Denval, four to Avanthal. Her finger traced the straight line between cities. Wind Reach and Avanthal were both situated at the tips of peninsulas. Denval was on the mainland, roughly halfway between the other two. She would approach and leave Denval over water. But tonight, tonight she could make it to the coast by dawn, sleep listening to the waves, and then depart shortly after mid morning. They would reach Denval by nightfall and spend the darkening there. Upon leaving at dawn, they would fly for the nearest bit of land on the Avanthal side and go from there.

Perhaps we should leave at dawn, Catabasis cut into her planning with the token suggestion. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, as well. The weather was holding nicely; he was in a foul mood; Sai was in a foul mood. Perfect travelling conditions. Tomorrow they would just regret not leaving this evening. But…

It would be warmer, Catabasis, the methodical woman agreed absently, nudging a candle closer to the map as she hunched over the table with a scrap of parchment, a borrowed quill, and a compass. How do I do this, again? Catabasis instructed her, drawing on experience from past lives to provide a step by step walkthrough. The edge of the compass was aligned with Wind Reach and the point on the coast she was planning on bedding down for the morning. She started rotating the housing, only to be squawked at for not making sure the in-compass travel arrow was pointing the right way. The compass was flipped over with a roll of her eyes and the housing rotated until the orienteering lines and arrow pointed to the map’s north. Carefully, like the slightest jolt would disturb the compass, she gripped the edges of the map and rotated it until the map’s north was also the compasses north. Sai hopped to her feet and peered down at the bearing. She was supposed to walk into that dusty corner off to her left.

Do not allow the housing to move one click. We shall see how close your bearing turns out, he gave his dubious approval and Sai shrugged, knowing that Catabasis didn’t need a compass to get them to the right point. After tucking the compass into her sash, Sai rolled up the map and stuck it back into its case, slinging that over a shoulder so she could gather up the unused parchment, quill, and ink bottle

Kavisan was still sitting at the reception desk, but the assistant that had helped Sai find the materials a bell or so earlier was gone. Sai carefully returned the quill and ink bottle, as well as the parchment. “I’m going to take this with me,” the Endal told him, showing him the category number on the parchment case. He noted it and went back to replicating an ancient book with a picture of an Eagle wrapping a naked man in his wings.

[Sairque]

The Aeries

Stars twinkled outside the cave, inviting her to dance along the light of the moon with them. It wasn’t like she and Catabasis had anyone else to keep them company. Only Leth. Sai tightened down the thin leather saddle, careful of the feathers beneath it, and stepped off the stone block to grab one of the saddlebags. This one carried the rations: two weeks worth of pasty green mold packed into a few slender tins, two loafs of bread, and several mushrooms and cheeses. Deft fingers attached it and jerked the leather straps tight. The next one had clothing, a few different sets of bryda and vinati, and a field healer’s kit. Attached to the front of the saddle were two small leather pouches; in one of them was a small sack with flint and steel, candles, and tender, while in the other was a compass, a sighting lens, and the map she’d borrowed from the Enclave.

Her gear, strapped securely directly behind the saddle, composed of a single person tent, two large mountain goat hides from her bed, fifty feet of silk rope, a woodsman’s axe, a few chunks of wood, small animal snare, and a spade. Because one never knew. The hard leather creaked under her hands as she tested the security of each bag. Is that comfortable?

Catabasis stepped away, shaking his body in a grand attempt to either dislodge the leather trappings or settle them into place. They didn’t take Sai out, so he stepped back up to the step. Yes. Our departure time has arrived, he prompted firmly, shaking her from an introspective stare at the door into her portion of the aerie. Nimbly, she vaulted across the short distance between the step and Catabasis, skittering up the leather until her rear could be planted in the seat. Without delay, Catabasis hopped forward, spreading his wings and catching the night’s chill beneath them.

The hops were jarring, but Sai held tight to the two built in grips in the front of the saddle. They were low profile, complimenting the shape of the saddle instead of sticking up like sore thumbs. She’d had them perfectly shaped to the curve of her palm and the curl of her fingers. And then the expected thump against the ground and reverse in motion never came. Hair flipping easily in the wind, Sai reveled in the sensation of falling until Catabasis snapped his wings out and she smacked back down on the saddle with a painful thunk. Grumbling, the Rider tightened the grip her legs had on the seat.

Resolutely, the Endal watched the moon light up the shimmering bay and cast sharp shadows over the rugged terrain far beneath the pair. There was no reason to twist around and watch their aerie blend into the inky shadow of Mt. Skyinarta. Aidara was free for the next ten day to do as she wished. Catabasis winged around the mountain, beak pointed unerringly toward their coastal camp site.

Banishing all thoughts of home from mind, the flight leader dug around until both the compass and the sighting lens were in hand. Thanks to the full moon, the bearing she had set earlier was easily visible. Are we heading straight for the knob?

Yes.

The needle swung slowly back and forth.

Keep the needle in the orienteering arrow, he ordered, voice terse not from his inexperienced navigator, or even her barely concealed distress, but from the distance growing between himself and his duties.

Adjusting for the apparent meandering Catabasis was doing by twisting at the waist, Sai carefully kept the needle in place and lifted the sighting lens to her eye. There was a boulder on a ridge, white in a field of shadow. A glance down showed that the needle was no longer in the orienteering arrow. Minute adjustment. Lifting the two instruments side by side, she kept one eye on the finicky navigational piece even as she searched for a landmark through the lens. A sudden updraft bucked the Eagle in a roll over the edge of it and then carried them high. The Rider on his back adjusted for the undulation and then the change in velocity with hardly a thought, but her knuckles were white around the expensive instruments. Heart in her throat, she ripped open the storage pouch and carefully placed the tools inside, not loosening her grip until they were deep in the container.

Hunching down against the wind, she tugged her katinu tighter and finally fished the mittens out of the generous pockets.

[Sairque]

The Point

The stoic Eagle banked hard around the point and then stumbled to a stop in the center. He was a dark shadow that wouldn’t be banished even in the pre-dawn illumination.

“I was nowhere near the correct bearing, was I?” Sai asked as she pulled the equipment off Catabasis and carefully checked his feathers and skin for wear. “I couldn’t tell because you kept going back and forth. Maybe it will be easier tomorrow in the sun.”

The snow is light. I will hunt for breakfast when we wake, Catabasis told her, shaking his feathers back into place and extending a wing over the huddled figure pulling her sleeping gear apart. Sending him enough gratitude to warm a creature even his size, she hurried to get everything set up before his trembling wing gave out.

Ripping the simple tent out of its satchel, Sai flung the material out over the thin coating of snow and ice that had encased the short native grass. One tent pole in each hand, she hunched over the deflated tent and scoured it for the simple leather ties. The dark material, tough enough to protect even from a bear’s attack, swallowed up distinguishing features. Dropping the poles, she groped through the folds of material, trying to follow the seams to the little ties that would hold the tent to the poles. They were missing. Lost in the voluminous folds when all she wanted to do was go to petching sleep. Finger’s lighting on one of the tent poles, she flung it out into the darkness, crying out in frustration. Abandoning the gear to the elements, Sai pulled apart the tent until she could crawl in between two layers of material.

It didn’t matter if she were actually inside the tent or just wrapped up in it. A hot dog would do instead of a burrito in this situation. The snow was off and Catabasis could hunker down to catch some sleep himself. The gear…well, Catabasis could sit on it if the weather worsened.

The mid-day sun bathed the coast in weak intermittent light, only occasionally bursting through the cloud cover. Hunched over, tent still a puddle behind her, Sai fumbled stiffly with the fire materials. Her numb fingers kept knocking over the thin sticks of wood perched over the wisps of kindling. Finally, the construct half demolished, she gave up and fumbled with the flint and steel. There was no finesse to this, she hacked at the flint desperately. The few sparks fizzled out far before reaching anything worth incinerating. Dropping the tools into the semi-cleared area around the fire, she chaffed her hands together brusquely before shoving them into her pockets. The posture made her look like a frog.
Collar uncomfortably moist from the captured breath, Sai scowled at the sticks, inconveniently not on fire, and instead plucked at the gossamer strands of her connection with Catabasis. He was stuffing his face just down the coast. The baby whale’s fat was savory, and the meat still warm in its juiciness. Sai knew there was a rabbit waiting for her to eat. But she refused to eat it in raw bloody chunks. Hence, the fire. Reminded, attitude adjusted, she bared her hands to the elements again and snatched up the flint and steel. This time she managed the patience to hold the tools a proper distance from the kindling.

The sparks bounced and caught in the tender, but not even a whiff of smoke wafted up. Growling deep in her throat, her motions gradually evolved toward desperation. Finally, finally, when her hands were stiff enough to bring her to the brim of tears, two sparks, like the only two stars visible through the roiling mass of storm clouds, caught on the same strand of kindling and ever loving flame raced between them. Getting a face full of snow, she dropped to her stomach and allowed her carefully regulated breath to encourage the growth of the little baby flame. In time she added twigs and finally sticks until the small fire, no larger than the diameter of a plate, crackled happily.

Only after warming herself once more did she finally rise and put on her mittens, snagging her bow, a few arrows, and headed off toward where Catabasis had left her the rabbit with the broken neck. The short trek inland revealed no dead bunny, just cute little indentations in the snow that walked up to a scuffled spot roughly the size of a jackrabbit and then walked away. But having conquered fire, what was a little hunting to warm the body up? Sai dropped to her haunches and examined the tracks, some kind of feline. A small one, the paw wasn’t even the size of her palm. Young or a small species.

Tightening all her gear down to minimize noise, Sai knocked one arrow and stored the other three. Go time. Further inland she trekked along the trail, sticking out like a sore thumb in her dark kitanu, unsurprised when the gait of the cat changed, lengthened. If she had to guess, it had picked up to a trot.

[Sairque]

What are you doing?

Getting lunch.

Why?

Sai stopped walking and looked unerringly to the exact spot Catabasis wheeled overhead. Because I’m hungry and the cat stole my rabbit.

You should not have left it lying there.

Someone was apparently in better spirits having eaten some delectable baby whale.

Can you see the damn cat?

Yes, all nine of them.

What? Nine?! Where?

There are two about fifteen paces to your left, three in the copse of winterberry bush ahead of you, and four following you.

Sai sighed, knowing that while Catabasis was near the danger was vastly mitigated even while being lured into a trap. Are they big?

I am no expert on felines, Sairque, but if I had to guess, you would lose in a fight, Catabasis informed her and patiently waited as she contemplated the situation. To her right there was a small hillock, undoubtedly providing cover, otherwise, the land was pretty flat in the nearby area. Just that small copse of vegetation about five hundred feet ahead.

Which one has my rabbit? The silence drew out on Catabasis’ end of the conversation.

Can we not just catch another one?

I’m hungry now.

She could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

The right most cat in the winterberry bush has it, he managed to somehow mentally mumble.

The heavily bundled Inarta readied her bow and continued on toward the brush, scouring for any sign of movement. She could detect none, but Catabasis informed her that she had been completely encircled by the felines and now there were only two in the bush. Just a stone’s throw away, Sai stopped. Catabasis meandered down to the ground and landed next to her. She looked up at him and shrugged, all the communication they needed for him to take off and swoop her up in his claws and carry her back to camp. It just wasn’t worth it, not the expenditure of energy or time.

The fire was out, but there was still a nice warm black spot. Retrieving more tender, she carefully bunched it up in the center and examined it for any sign of lighting from a hidden ember. No such luck, but after a soft blow on the ashes, a few coals flared to life and the tip of her knife nudged them carefully to the center. This method started the fire remarkably quicker.

By the time she’d lit it again, he’d returned with another rabbit. Sai wiped off her hunting knife and skinned the little guy, careful not to sever anything aside from the meat. Slicing off the meat in thin chunks to hold over the flames on the tip of her knife, the flight leader cooked piece by piece until she was full. After disposing of the remainder far enough out that the cats could get and finish it off, Sai set to packing camp.

The tent pole she’d flung out the night before was gone forever.

After Catabasis had been loaded, camp brushed down to minimize signs of her occupation, she scurried up the tack until she could pull herself into the saddle. Once more she pulled out the compass, flipping over the casing and adjusting her hand until the needle could swing freely. Feeling the magnificently ominously colored bird stir beneath her, Sai put the equipment away and tightened down with her legs. Catabasis lurched forward toward the edge of the point, eschewing diving off the edge due to the proximity of the churning water below. Smoothly, they caught the ocean breeze and lifted inch by inch into the air.

[Sairque]

Snowflakes winding down along their air-current chosen paths, Sai ignored the way it stung her eyes and peered down at the morose ocean. It and the sky must have been having a pity party together, both were a murky shade of grey. Eyes tracked up to the horizon in the distance, and she skimmed Catabasis mind for an image of the coast or a point they were heading toward until he could see Denval. The effort he exerted increased, puzzling Sai, she couldn’t pull out either of her requests. His mind was like the ocean, there, everywhere, but she couldn’t penetrate its depths.

Please desist, he finally requested with a twisting of his neck to glance back at her.

Why? Is everything okay?

If you wanted to know where we were going, then you should have used your map and compass, he reprimanded. He’d never been to Avanthal before, if she didn’t figure out how to use the equipment, they’d have a petching hard time finding the city unless they tracked along the coast the entire way. A luxury time didn’t favor.

Oh. Turn around then, take us back to the point. Sai ignored the irritation that flared up at her demand, he’d started this, after all.

You cannot wait until Denval?

Nope.

His plans and the specifics of his mind still eluding her, she’d not expected him to pull up sharply, turning around by going upside down. Instinctively, her thighs clamped tight but she knew that her previous momentum would push her into the saddle unless he lingered upside down too long. He didn’t, twisting and rotating back over right-side up.

Back on the point, Catabasis’ hot breath bathed Sai’s kneeling form. Yes, it was nasty, but he already knew she found it so, so if it mattered to him he’d have already moved. Sai peered down at the map spread out on the snow before her, the compass flipped open in her hand and the lesson from the previous night eluding her recall. Catabasis, as expected, didn’t offer suggestion.

She’d put the compass on the map, so there it went again. The needle slowly bobbed back and forth until settling in to point leftish. The scene before her meant not a thing. Two red lines almost perpendicular to the needle shot off toward the ocean. Curiously, she reached down and turned the dial so that the needle rested inside the two lines. The cardinal directions chilled out on the edges. Last night, she’d had to walk into a corner. The compass had pointed into the corner after she’d rotated the map. Okay. Why had she done that? As it were, the map’s ocean faced the same way that the ocean was in front of her. So Denval was…that way. Water and sky greeted her disappointed gaze. The needle pointed at N. The key on the map had a N. Experimentally, Sai rotated the map so that the North on both instruments faced the same direction.

Good, he finally chimed in, but Sai knew he wasn’t going to help any more than by letting her know she was on the right track.

Okay. So the map faced north, and compass pointed north. Denval was not where she’d originally thought it was. Okay. Denval was, Sai peered down at the little numbers rounding the compass, using a finger to trace from the correctly labeled dot toward one of the numbers, at 120. So she was going to put the map away and just use the compass. And she had to keep the needle in the arrow, the two red lines. It wouldn’t be very easy to head toward that little number while trying to focus on the needle and the arrow. Not all three at once. Okay. Sai lined the compass up between the two cities. The needle was no longer in the arrow.

Good. On the right track. No pun intended.

The arrow pointed off in a useless direction, so she rotated the dial until it pointed to WR. No…the needle had to go in the arrow. Rotated again, the needle and arrow coincided. Now the number 280 pointed toward Denval. So she was going to have to watch all three things anyway. Keep the compass pointed to 280 by making sure the needle stayed in the arrow. But now the compass was at least pointed at Denval.

It is not, he crushed her confidence sternly. We are not on the line between Denval and Wind Reach.

Where are we? What the petch was he talking about?

You can find that yourself. Find the point that intersects at the lines between Skyinarta and that peak over there, the one shaped like a talon. Sai exhaled heavily and Catabasis continued sagely. Point the arrow at Skyinarta and put the needle in it.

Sai rotated the dial as ordered.

Now line your orienteering lines up north-south with the map, he nudged her with a thought of the immovable lines running beneath the dial, and she quickly caught on. On her own, she lined one end of the compass up with Skyinarta. We are someone on that line, I would guess the point closest to the ocean, he added dryly, cutting Sai’s question short. Duh.

So I don’t need to do another one?

No, but you do have to find Denval again.


A bit more confidently this time around, Sai flipped the compass around, painstakingly lining up the orienteering lines, rotating the dial, and taking note of the bearing. Admiring her handy work, the Endal stood and moved around a bit, making sure the compass worked properly. Snapping it shut with a jaunty step, she leaned down, snagged the map up and carefully rolled it to return to its case. Now they could leave.

All right? the flightleader asked, and already having sensed his approval, Let’s go.

[Sairque]

Transbay Flight

Grey and cold, the ocean stretched forth in a never ending plane of desolate waste, meeting and tainting the hooded sky at some indefinable and immensely lamentable point. The water roiled choppily, vibrating in anxiety at a distant maelstrom, warned of its approach by menacing tendrils of storm-seasons water slinking their way at its command. Uninitiated in the ways of ocean networking, Sai transferred her scowl from the white sprinkled surface to the compass she’d finally attached to a wrist with a piece of leather webbing originally packed for tack repair. Without bothering to open and check it, she turned her palm back down and rested it against the saddle above her knee.

Catabasis’ single minded focus provided a calm slate on which her own uneasiness rested fitfully. The competent Eagle had made the flight to Denval before, and they were both seasoned in flying through storms, but past trips did nothing to ensure safety through the current one. Sai had no disturbed water to tell her what was coming, but then again, she didn’t need it. There, bearing down on them from out over the deep sea, churned a dark mass that didn’t take a stormwarden to know was bringing high winds and lots of ice.

Bones seemingly frozen in place, her body creaked upon the first turbulent roll Catabasis corrected for, his body undulating sideways as a large airwave passed by them. Iron ribs of determination fortified his focus, the experienced flyer accounting for uneven skies with small corrections and increasing the force of his wing beats, each calculated thrust powering through both opposition and loss of lift. Sai hunkered down, pulling the hood of the katinu over her capped and scarfed head. With each burst of wind the Eagle had to account for, Sai felt lifted from the saddle and heat stolen from every available chink in her winter gear.

Eventually, the rocking became commonplace, and dreams of volcanic vents beckoned her focus from the chill. In a dreamlike stupor, bent over Catabasis, inhaling the oily scent of his feathers, the flight leader only remained awake enough to maintain the grip on her seat. They raced the approaching storm, travelling slower but with a shorter distance to Denval and shelter. The front wasn’t without its weapons though. Beneath them, massive waves started rolling through, conjured up by an icy tendril. They heard it before they felt it. A whistling whipped by them, icy chimes fitting the death chill that raced through their clothing a sliver of a second later. Catabasis dropped to the right, wing losing lift in the churning airstream. Down they spiraled, Sai gritting her teeth and clenching the holds on the saddle, praying to any nearby Gods that they not touch the water.

The Eagle struggled to maintain balance though the agitated air, panicking finally and desperately turning toward the storm and winging with all the power he could rally. For long stretches, they continued falling, this hesitation of lift that ultimately failed and dropped them another indeterminate distance. Exhausted, Catabasis gave up and unfurled his wings to their full capacity, hoping to catch, before they hit the water, the burst of warm air that would follow the cold stream. Sai opened her mind to connect with the Eagle, knowing that these would be the last moments of peace if they were to die here.

Warmth flooded through their bond, bubbling, gurgling warmth. Laughter. Sai took stock. The falling had stopped, the wind had stopped. Catabasis whirled around and double-timed it towards the silvery coast. It grew steadily, Catabasis putting the dregs of his reserves into closing the distance. Eventually, the port loomed, rocks capped in ice, the city walls. Sai pulled up and flipped open the compass, checking the bearing, the needle floated in the arrow. She’d done it correctly. Petch yeah.

[Phoenix]

Character: Sairque Experience: Riding (Eagle)- 5, Cartography- 5, Land Navigation- 5, Organization- 2, Wilderness Survival- 2 Lore: Planning a long trip, Preparing properly for the trip, Learning to use a compass, Having good taste in Giant Eagle gear, Sporting a sore butt as the badge of a rough take-off, Learning to navigate cross lands, Setting up camp, Improvising when things go missing, Attempting to steal prey from a predator, Fixing wrong calculations, Exerting large amounts of patience, Surviving flying through the storm Additional Comments: This was a wonderful read. This could have easily been very tedious to get through, but you made it engaging to the reader and the words flew by! I love it! I want more!